A friend and I climbed Mt Sinai one morning last week.
Neither of us is religious, just into hiking in mountains. We're both reasonably fit very early 40s.
We set off from the Plaza Hotel (over-priced and very shabby, I'd say) at St Katherine at 5am in the morning, passed the monastery at 5:30am, and reached the summit at 7:30am or so. We passed huge numbers of tourists/pilgrims coming down, especially at the last stage of the steps to/from the summit. Although we had the sunrise during the ascent rather than at the summit, we did have the summit to ourselves - remarkable given how crowded it had been an hour or so earlier. We came down the steps and were back having a shower in the hotel before 9:30am, ready to see the monastery.
Three points (two points and a question)
1) take lots of water and snacks, as on any strenuous hike - though you can buy more from little stalls alongside the camel trail
2) don't underestimate altitude sickness - though Jebel Musa isn't that high (c2270m, with the monastery being c 1550m I think) altitude sickness can be a problem for some people at these heights, particularly if they are unaccustomed to exercising much above sea level. I felt lousy for much of the ascent, though better after a beaker of hot sweet tea from a Bedouin tent.
3) there are number stations/points of interest on the route. Number 9, half-way up the camel trail, is stated on the map by the carpark to be the "Galakation and episteme". Diligent research - Collins English dictionary, Wikipedia - has failed to explain to me what these are, or why they should be half-way up Jebel Musa. Is galakation anything to do with milk (lactation? galaxies such as the milky way?). Is episteme anything other than a idea of Michel Foucault? Should every hike have a galakation and episteme, or do they have particular religious relevance??
Many thanks in anticipation of an answer to 3)
Martin
I found this on Tour Egypt<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Site 9 Galaktion and Episteme
Site 9 is located on a bend in the camel path. Looking across to Jebel El-Deir, you can see a green tree midway up the mountain. To the left of this is the Monastery of Saint Episteme, a nun, and Saint Galaktion, a monk, who lived in the fourth century.
To your right you have a good view of the switch-back path leading to Saint Theodore’s chapel on the green tinged mountain of Jebel El-Muneijah.
Lives of Galaktion and Episteme
Galaktion was the son of pagan parents who, in spite of sacrifices to idols, had been childless until they were advised by a priest to pray for a child to the God of the Christians. Galaktion was born and brought up as a Christian, he later married Episteme, also a Christian. They devoted their lives to God and became monastics. They settled in Sinai along with their followers to follow a life of devotion and to escape religious persecution but were captured by the Romans and martyred in the arena of Alexandria.<hr></blockquote>
Although I think I like the idea of a vista of knowledge and lactation a bit better.
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